An online site for the western collector of antique bottles, gold rush collectables and early western material culture

Thursday, April 19, 2012

Another Member of the "Club"

Here is another "Club House" that I know nothing about. I do believe that the few examples known have been found in California. These seem to be from the 1860s or earlier though they are smooth base. Anyone have any information as to who Woodgate was?

Bruce,Serifs are the semi-structural details on the ends of some of the strokes that make up letters and symbols. For example,the cross bar on the bottom of the supporting leg of the R in extra. Every letter on the Woodgate bottle has a serif font. The R in extra sure looks like the R on the early Hostetter's.rs

I dug one with a few friends about 4 years ago in the bay area. My friend ended up with that example in the split, but just 2 weeks later I saw a twin example in Auburn at the table of Jon S. and A.T. The one we dug and the one I bought both had significant lip chips. From what I remember, Jon and A.T. dug a total of about 6 broken and damaged examples in Nor. Cal, and 1 Mint example. I can only account for two mint examples (one was on ebay a few years ago, the other in a wine country collection?), and 3 more in-tact examples...2 of those have big lip chips and the other a blown out hole in the corner. Dale, was yours recently dug out West or picked up from a collector? If this is a fresh find, it would be the 3rd mint example that I can account for.